Regular season ends at Omaha

South Dakota State closes the
regular season on Thursday at Omaha, where the Jackrabbits can clinch a share
of The Summit League regular season title and the No. 1 seed in The Summit
League championships with a win. The Jacks and Mavericks tip at 7:05 p.m. from
Ralston Arena.

THE
LAST TIME OUT; Feb. 23, at Murray State:
MURRAY, Ky.
- In a game with two aptly nicknamed teams, South Dakota State and Murray State
traded runs on Saturday in the Ramada Worldwide Bracketbusters, but in the end,
the Racers outran the Jackrabbits by a 73-62 score at the CFSB Center in
Murray, Ky.

"There were some critical moments
there where I probably should've called timeout. We have an experienced ball
club, and usually when teams make runs, we're able to hold them off and score,
and usually I call timeout after we score, but we just couldn't get a bucket to
call a timeout," head coach Scott Nagy said. "I think a lot of it was my fault,
we played a short bench and we just kind of wore down and I should've used the
timeouts better."

The Jackrabbits, who fall to 21-9
on the season, went on the first run of the game, a 14-0 spurt that broke a
16-all tie and ended with the Jacks up 30-16 with 7 minutes and 10 second left
to play in the first half.

The Racers, who improve to 20-7,
responded with a run of their own a few minutes later with a 17-4 outburst that
got them to within three points at 31-34 with under two minutes in the half.

SDSU got a late 3-pointer from
Chad White and a Marcus Heemstra putback just before the first half buzzer
sounded to give the Jacks a 39-33 lead at halftime.

The Jacks scored the first eight
points of the second half to push the lead back to 14 points, but the Racers
used a 10-2 run to get within six at 43-49 and then used an 18-2 run later in
the half to turn a 48-54 deficit into a 66-56 lead with 4:23 remaining in the
game.

Nate Wolters snapped the run with
just over four minutes left, but Murray State scored the next seven points to
go up 73-58 with under two minutes to play to secure the win.

Wolters led a trio of Jackrabbits
in double figures with 18 points, tying for game-high honors with five assists.
White added 13 points and led the Jacks with seven rebounds, while Brayden
Carlson finished with 12 points.

Isaiah
Canaan led all scorers with 22 points, adding five assists, and Stacy Wilson
scored 15 for the Racers to round out the double-digit scorers.

TRACKING
THE JACKRABBITS

RABBITS ON THE RADIO - Originated from
the AM 570 WNAX studios in Yankton, S.D., every SDSU men's basketball games can
be heard live on a total of five stations throughout South Dakota on the
Jackrabbit Sports Network.

Pierre, S.D., native,
and 2012 South Dakota Sportscaster of the Year, Tyler Merriam returns for his
second season as the voice of Jackrabbit men's basketball. He also serves as
the voice of Jackrabbit football.

THE
JACKRABBIT EXTRA
- Subscribers to the Jackrabbit Extra on GoJacks.com watch every SDSU home game
and select road games streaming live on the internet. In addition, subscribers
can listen to every game, home and on the road, streaming live on the
internet.

To subscribe to the Jackrabbit
Extra, log onto GoJacks.com and click on "SIGN UP NOW"

THE
JACKRABBIT INSIDER ON FOX - Fans of South Dakota State Athletics can get a
weekly behind-the-scenes look at all 21 Jackrabbit varsity sports teams by
tuning into "The Jackrabbit Insider."

Hosted
by Tyler Merriam, the show airs on Sundays on KTTW FOX 17 at 10:30 p.m., and
can also be seen on Fox Sports North at 6 p.m. on Tuesdays.

NOTEWORTHY

WOLTERS
ON MULTIPLE AWARDS WATCH LISTS -
The only player in Division I men's basketball to average at least 20 points,
five rebounds and five assists per game in 2011-12 put senior Nate Wolters on
the national map, which led him earning a place on multiple award watch lists.

ELITE
COMPANY
-
Nate Wolters entered the week on pace to become the first player since the NCAA
began keeping assists as an official statistic (1983-84) to average 20 points,
five assists and five rebounds in two separate seasons. In 2011-12, he averaged
21.2 points, 5.9 assists and 5.1 rebounds per game and became the fifth to
achieve a 20-5-5 season. Wolters' 2012-13 pace could allow him to reach an
elite group with a 20-points, six-assist and five rebound average, a feat he
missed by just one assist in 2011-12 only two other players in NCAA history
achieved.

WOLTERS
ERUPTS!
-
In the Jacks 80-74 win at Fort Wayne on Feb. 7, Wolters set SDSU single-game
records with 53 points and with nine 3-pointers. In addition to those marks,
the 53-point performance marks the third-highest in Summit League history,
trailing only North Dakota State's Ben Woodside (60 vs. Stephen F. Austin, Dec.
12, 2008) and UMKC's Michael Watson (54 vs. Oral Roberts, Feb. 22, 2003), but
does represent the highest single-game total in league history in a regulation
game. It also represents the highest single-game total in NCAA Division I this
season.

WOLTERS
NAMED PLAYER OF THE WEEK
-The Summit League named South Dakota State point guard Nate Wolters its Player
of the Week on Monday for a league-record seventh time, and tied the all-time
league mark with 15 career honors

Against CSU Bakersfield on
Wednesday, Wolters finished one assist shy of a triple-double, scoring 32
points, grabbing 10 rebounds and dishing out nine assists. Facing Murray State
in a nationally-televised BracketBusters game, he scored 18 points with six
rebounds, five assists and two steals.

Wolters played 89 of his team's
90 minutes in the two games, including all 50 in the double-overtime contest at
Bakersfield. His weekly averages included 25 points, seven assists, six
rebounds and 1.5 steals per game. Wolters became the first player on record
(since 1990-91) to earn three consecutive Summit League Player of the Week
awards.

PERFECT
AT HOME
-
The Jackrabbits entered the season with 17 straight home wins, and then capped
their second perfect home season at 13-0 with a 64-55 win over Western Illinois
on Feb. 16, giving SDSU a school and Summit League record 30 consecutive home
wins, the longest streak in all of Division I basketball.

DYKSTRA
DOUBLES UP
- After posting a single double-double in each of his first two seasons, Jordan
Dykstra posted double-doubles in eight games this season, including three of
the last four games, the last being a 11 point, 10 rebound game at CSU
Bakersfield on Feb. 20, which also marks the first loss this season when
Dykstra posts a double-double.

A FIRST FOR THE
JACKRABBITS
- South Dakota State's victory at previously unbeaten and No. 16 ranked New
Mexico on Dec. 22, marked SDSU's first victory over a ranked opponent at the
Division I level and gave The Summit League its first win over a ranked team
this season. The Jackrabbits lost their first seven games against ranked
opponents in Division I.

ON THE
RECORD

WOLTERS
SETS SCORING RECORDS
- Nate Wolters became the 42nd member of the SDSU 1,000-Point Club in a win
over Sam Houston State on Nov. 22, 2011, and then set the school record for
points in a career on Jan. 5 at South Dakota, when he broke Mark Tetzlaff's 28
year-old record in the DakotaDome. In addition to the career record, Wolters
set the SDSU single game scoring record with a 53-point outburst at Fort Wayne
on Feb. 7, when he also set the SDSU single-game record with nine 3-pointers.

WOLTERS
JOINS 2,000-POINT CLUB
- Wolters scored 1,628 points in his first three years as a Jackrabbit,
including the SDSU sophomore record with 604 points and the junior record with
721 points. He entered his senior season 372 points shy of becoming the first
member of the SDSU 2,000-Point Club, which he accomplished with a 22-point game
in a win at Western Illinois on Jan. 17.

WOLTERS
SETS FREE THROWS RECORD
- Adding to his legacy, Wolters tied the SDSU career free throws made record of
532 at Kansas City on Jan. 3, and then broke the record with his first make at
South Dakota on Jan. 5. He enters Saturday's game with an SDSU record 620 in
his career.

MORE
THAN JUST A SCORER
-
In addition to his scoring prowess, Wolters set the SDSU career assists record
on Feb. 9, at Oakland, when dished out his 606th career assist, topping the old
mark of 605, set by Brian Norberg from 1995-99. Wolters enters Saturday's game
with 631 dimes in his career. He also ranks fifth all-time at SDSU with 184
steals.

DYKSTRA
HITS 1,OOO-POINT MILESTONE - Junior Jordan Dykstra became the 43rd member of the
SDSU 1,000-Point Club in the Jacks win over South Dakota on Jan. 31, and
immediately started to climb the scoring charts. He enters Saturday's game
ranked 31st all-time at SDSU with 1,081 points.

JACKS
SET FREE THROWS RECORD
- The Jackrabbits combined to go a perfect 17-for-17 from the free throw line
at Oakland, for a perfect 100 percent free throw percentage. That ties a
perfect 14-for-14 night vs. IPFW on Jan. 5, 2008 and a 13-for-13 night against
IUPUI on Feb. 7, 2008, both at Frost Arena.

GOOD
FOR THREE!
- Two of the top-10 three-point shooters in SDSU history, based on three-point
field goal percentage, currently play for the Jackrabbits. Jordan Dykstra leads
the way with .471 percent, while Chad White ranks third with a .433 mark from
deep.

THIS WEEK'S
OPPONENT

OMAHA
MAVERICKS (11-18, 6-8 Summit)- After posting just
a 2-10 record to start the season, the transitioning Mavericks, who cannot play
in The Summit League Championships, enter the final weekend of the season on a
three game winning streak and winners of six of their last eight games.

Picked to finish last in The Summit League Preseason Poll, the Mavericks
currently sit in fifth place in the league standings.

THE
SERIES vs. OMAHA
-
The Jackrabbits lead the all-time series 47-31, despite dropping the three of
the last four games in the series. The Mavericks won the last meeting in Omaha
on Feb. 27, 2004, while the Jacks won the first meeting at the Division I level
on Dec. 1, at Frost Arena.

Troy Huff led North Dakota
(12-15) with 21 points. Aaron Anderson added 19 points and five assists in a
losing cause

The game was tied at 41 at
halftime and there were 10 ties and 20 lead changes. North Dakota did not make
a field goal in the final 5:44.

North Dakota leads the all-time
series 45-33; the first game was played in the 1934-35 season. The teams played
in the Division II North Central Conference until 2008 when North Dakota left
for Division I. Omaha is in its second year and first as a full-time member of
the Summit League.

THE
LAST MEETING: vs. Omaha: Dec. 1, Frost Arena - South Dakota State opened The
Summit League season against league newcomer Omaha with a well-balanced 78-63
win in front of 3,021 fans at Frost Arena, which saw four Jackrabbits score at
least 13 points.

The Jackrabbits dominated the
first half, leading by as many as 30 points before taking a 56-28 lead into the
locker room.

Omaha came out hot in the second
half, and cut the lead to as few as 13 points, but the Jacks didn't let them
get any closer.

The Jackrabbits shot 56 percent
in the first half on 23-of-41 shooting, but went cold in the second half,
shooting just 34.6 percent on 9-of-26 shooting, including a 2-for-11 effort
from long range.

Omaha shot 48 percent in both
halves, going 13-for-27 in the first half and 12-for-25 in the second half.

Jordan Dykstra led all players
with 17 points, including a 3-for-4 night from 3-point range. Tony Fiegen tied
a career-high with 16 points on 8-of-9 shooting and added a game-high nine
rebounds, while Nate Wolters and Brayden Carlson both contributed 13 points in
the win. Wolters added five assists and grabbed four rebounds, while Carlson
finished with five rebounds.

John Karhoff led the Mavericks
with 16 points, with Justin Simmons and CJ Carter both adding 10 points in a
losing cause.

NEXT
UP FOR THE JACKRABBITS
- With a win on Thursday, or a Western Illinois loss on Thursday or Saturday,
SDSU would earn the No. 1 seed in The Summit League Championship and face IUPUI
on Saturday, March 9 at 6 p.m.

A
Jackrabbit loss, coupled with two Western Illinois wins, would drop the Jacks
to the No. 2 seed in the tournament, where they would play the No. 7 seed on March
9, at 8:30 p.m.